He started out by saying that the paydays for the two top attractions would leave very little money left to pay for good undercard fights, there is also the belief that an undercard would not really be necessary as the fight is so big and well publicised that it would carry itself.
Whilst talking to ThaBoxingVoice, former world champion Robert Guerrero discussed his upcoming bout with one of the upcoming stars of the sport – Keith Thuman. Guerrero discussed a bout he had with Andre Berto where both Berto and the public at large assumed the bigger, stronger Berto was going to walk through Guerrero and knock him out. Guerrero actually brutalised Berto in that fight. He knocked him down twice and bruised up his face severely. Berto managed to see the fight out to the twelfth, but if we were in the days of fifteen round fights it would have had to be stopped.
In 2011, heavyweight Tyson Fury fought Nocolai Firtha. This was Furys 16th fight of his career and he stopped Firtha in the 5th round. Interestingly 2 years and another loss later Wilder would also fight Firtha, despite this being his thirtieth fight. From that point Fury has fought another 7 times and out of those eight fights he has stopped 7 opponents. The point I am making here is that Fury was never known as a real puncher considering he fights in the heavyweight division. He now has 17 stoppages from 23 fights which is around a 75% KO ratio.
In an interview with FightHype, former WBC featherweight world champion Abner Mares discussed his amateur bout with Guillermo Rigondeaux in the finals of the Pan American Games. In that fight Mares lost and ended up walking away with the silver medal and Rigondeaux took the gold.
In the interview Mares said he was not scared of Rigondeaux and would love to fight him. ‘I think there is a great possibility I beat him, we just have to work hard and find a way.’ A possible clash between Rigondeaux and a well known talent like Mares is long overdue and I am sure there would be a lot of public interest in this fight.
The Liverpool favourite landed the rematch he craved in December and has been working tirelessly in the gym with trainer Joe Gallagher to build upon the confidence from their first meeting and perfect a plan to leave the result in no doubt. Smith feels primed to rip the title from a champion that he respects, but does not believe can offer anything more than he did in their first meeting.
GENNADY “GGG” GOLOVKIN
“Martin Murray is a great fighter, he looks strong here today. He is the biggest test of my career.”
“Thanks to everyone for putting this event together, it’s great to be back in Monte Carlo, I love fighting here. Thanks to my team and my coach Abel Sanchez.”
“I promise a great fight on Saturday night and a big drama show.”
In the press conference for the upcoming Golovkin vs Murray fight, the dominant 160lb champion had a lot of good words to say about his latest choice of opponent. Martin Murray from the UK has 29 wins in 31 fights with 1 loss and a draw. After winning the British, Commonwealth and WBA Inter-Continental straps Murray faced WBA Super champion Felix Sturm.
That fight finished with a very controversial split decision draw as the final result and Murray was denied his world title. After two back to back wins which saw Murray gain the interim WBA title he then went into a fight with Sergio Martinez, who despite being dropped in the fight and looking as though he lost the majority of the exchanges, came away with the unanimous decision. This was the second title fight for Murray and the second time a home-cooked decision had cost him the title.
In an interview with FightHype, trainer Freddie Roach had a brief discussion regarding a potential matchup between middleweight champions Miguel Cotto and Gennady Golovkin. Roach immediately stated that to this point Golovkin has not fought the best fighters in the division. When discussing Golovkins past victims he said ‘they’re not that good, lets face it.’
I do not know how true this is as Golovkin has been beating top ten middleweights for a good amount of time now and making them look amateurish. This is a similar illusion created when Mayweather fights, many people think Mayweather doesn’t take the toughest choice of opponents because he beats them with such ease. What people don’t realise is that these are not easy fights, guys like Mayweather and Golovkin just make them look easy. Name another middleweight who could stop both Marco Antonio Rubio and Daniel Geale in less than 5 rounds combined?
Bob Arum, in an interview with FightHype, has said that pound for pound figher and four weight world champion Juan Manuel Marquez is in the process of testing out his knee and checking to see how the rehabilitation is going. Arum said that it would be in the next few months that an announcement would be made as to whether Marquez would be able to continue his boxing career, despite wanting to fight on and win that fifth world title and break the record for mexican boxers.
The news is mostly put down to the fact that Purdy sustained a severed and detached retina in his left eye during a fight with long reigning European Champion Leonard Bundu late in 2013. At the time the extent of the injuries were not know and he was expect to return to the ring in late 2014 or early 2015 and excitement in the UK was beginning to build after it was suggested he could be fighting the winner of Frankie Gavin and Bradley Skeete for the British title.